Norma Shearer flirts with Robert Montgomery, but it goes no further -- until her husband accuses her of adultery. Then she figures she might as well go ahead and do it, in RIPTIDE (1934) -- made right before the Production Code came in.

Photo: Milton Brown, Getty Images

Norma Shearer flirts with Robert Montgomery, but it goes no further...

Norma Shearer flirts with Robert Montgomery, but it goes no further... Photo-6495473.88348 - SFGate

LIKE CRAZY -- An interesting entry, it starts as a young love movie, then becomes a movie about familiarity, then a movie about adultery.

LIKE CRAZY -- An interesting entry, it starts as a young love...

LIKE CRAZY -- An interesting entry, it starts as a young love... Photo-6495427.88348 - SFGate

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MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS -- a very good and under-appreciated young love film, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS -- a very good and under-appreciated young love...

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS -- a very good and under-appreciated young love... Photo-6495428.88348 - SFGate

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"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist": One of the sub-genres of the young love film is the one magical night film. This is a mediocre example of a movie in that category, though the leads, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, were just fine.

1947: Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Parker in the film "The Voice of the turtle" about two people coming together in a very specific world -- a time when the war hadn't yet ended, but they could see the end coming.

Photo: Roger Viollet Collection, Roger Viollet/Getty Images

1947: Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Parker in the film "The Voice of...

1947: Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Parker in the film "The Voice... Photo-6495502.88348 - SFGate

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BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (2013) -- a great film about the exhilaration and pain of first love.

Photo: Dominique Charriau, WireImage

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (2013) -- a great film about the...

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (2013) -- a great film about the... Photo-6495423.88348 - SFGate

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John Cusack and Iben Hjejle in "High Fidelity" -- love turns him into an adult.

CAMILLE (1936) -- a courtesan finds redemption at the eleventh hour, when she falls selflessly in love with an idealistic young man. Garbo films were almost always about the woman's redemption through love and sacrifice.

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932) -- fascinating movie, almost a doomed love tale, about an alcoholic playwright who marries an innocent girl and drags her through the gutter. But the last minutes hint at the possibility of mutual redemption. Featuring a great performance by Fredric March.

THE ARTIST -- Her love rescues him from the edge of death and renews him and his career.

THE ARTIST -- Her love rescues him from the edge of death and...

THE ARTIST -- Her love rescues him from the edge of death and... Photo-6495446.88348 - SFGate

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MY FAIR LADY (1964) -- She ends up helping him as much as he helps her.

MY FAIR LADY (1964) -- She ends up helping him as much as he helps...

MY FAIR LADY (1964) -- She ends up helping him as much as he helps... Photo-6495447.88348 - SFGate

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ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS -- two painfully shy people find a way to deal with the world, through each other's influence.

ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS -- two painfully shy people find a way to deal...

ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS -- two painfully shy people find a way to deal... Photo-6495449.88348 - SFGate

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THE ROMANCE OF FAMILIARITY: Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire together in a scene from the film 'Flying Down To Rio', 1933. It was the delightful spectacle of a man and woman working together as pals that made them an immediate hit with this, their first film as a team.

Photo: Archive Photos, Getty Images

THE ROMANCE OF FAMILIARITY: Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire together...

ANIMAL KINGDOM (1932) -- this is a movie about the romance of familiarity, in which the true wife is the former live-in girlfriend (Ann Harding) and the mistaken lust-ridden fling is the wife (Myrna Loy) that our hero marries in haste.

ANIMAL KINGDOM (1932) -- this is a movie about the romance of...

ANIMAL KINGDOM (1932) -- this is a movie about the romance of... Photo-6495452.88348 - SFGate

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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1992) -- Shakespeare's play has at its center two people who know each other well and discover the powerful mutual attraction that has been dormant for years.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1992) -- Shakespeare's play has at its...

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1992) -- Shakespeare's play has at its... Photo-6495454.88348 - SFGate

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NENNETTE AND BONI -- Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Vincent Gallo played an enormously happy young married couple.

CLEOPATRA -- an adultery movie in the sense that Marc Antony was married. And also in the sense that Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were married (to other people) when they made this movie, and that's all the audience could think about.

SE SOUVENIR DE BELLES CHOSES -- She is a woman with premature dementia. He's a man slowly getting his mind back after a tragic accident. At first she's better off than he is, but as he recovers, she gets worse. Painful and very well acted.

SE SOUVENIR DE BELLES CHOSES -- She is a woman with premature...

SE SOUVENIR DE BELLES CHOSES -- She is a woman with premature... Photo-6495490.88348 - SFGate

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UP IN THE AIR -- You can argue this as an adultery movie, but it's more a case of doomed love -- a romantic projection on his part.

UP IN THE AIR -- You can argue this as an adultery movie, but it's...

UP IN THE AIR -- You can argue this as an adultery movie, but... Photo-6495491.88348 - SFGate

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Marie-Josee Croze, best known as the Dutch assassin in MUNICH, attends "Je l'aimais" Paris Premiere on April 27, 2009. This is a really sophisticated film about adultery, sympathetic to all sides, in which everyone loses. She played the other woman.

Photo: Marc Ausset-Lacroix, WireImage

Marie-Josee Croze, best known as the Dutch assassin in MUNICH,...

Marie-Josee Croze, best known as the Dutch assassin in MUNICH,... Photo-6495469.88348 - SFGate

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LOVE IN THE SOCIAL CONTEXT -- "Going the Distance" was about the challenge of maintaining a relationship in a bad economy.

LOVE IN THE SOCIAL CONTEXT -- "Going the Distance" was about the...

LOVE IN THE SOCIAL CONTEXT -- "Going the Distance" was... Photo-6495493.88348 - SFGate

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LUST, CAUTION -- the effect of war and occupation on sex and love.

LUST, CAUTION -- the effect of war and occupation on sex and love.

LUST, CAUTION -- the effect of war and occupation on sex and love. Photo-6495497.88348 - SFGate

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REDS (1981) -- love in the social context of the communist revolution.

REDS (1981) -- love in the social context of the communist revolution.

REDS (1981) -- love in the social context of the communist revolution. Photo-6495500.88348 - SFGate

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ROMAN HOLIDAY lots of elements, but the social context dominates. She's royalty, and he's not.

ROMAN HOLIDAY lots of elements, but the social context dominates....

ROMAN HOLIDAY lots of elements, but the social context dominates.... Photo-6495501.88348 - SFGate

Nina Arianda on the set of "Rob The Mob" -- all about young love, the romance of familiarity, redemption, and doomed love. But the context is important, too. A mafia dominated neighborhood in New York.

Photo: Bobby Bank, WireImage

Nina Arianda on the set of "Rob The Mob" -- all about young love,...

Nina Arianda on the set of "Rob The Mob" -- all about... Photo-6495507.88348 - SFGate

Norma Shearer plays rich girl Florence (left) and poor girl Molly (right) in "Lady of the Night." A great movie about the social context's effect on love, it's about a man who chooses the rich girl and doesn't notice the poor girl -- that is, he doesn't even notice that they're identical. All he sees is class and money.

Sandrine Kimberlain starred as the other woman in MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON (2009), about a lonely music teacher who falls in love with a construction worker --played by Kiberlain's ex-husband, Vincent Lindon.

Photo: Serge BENHAMOU, Gamma-Rapho Via Getty Images

Sandrine Kimberlain starred as the other woman in MADEMOISELLE...

Sandrine Kimberlain starred as the other woman in MADEMOISELLE... Photo-6495470.88348 - SFGate

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Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart in Nicholas Ray's IN A LONELY PLACE (1950). Love is doomed by his uncontrollable temper.

GLOOMY SUNDAY -- a great film, with elements of everything, young love, redemption, the romance of familiarity, adultery, and doomed love. But there's also the context to contend with, Hungary during the Nazi occupation.